Case Studies

Expropriated Oil Fields in South America

A foreign oil company had major oil fields seized by the government and brought a case against that government at the World Bank’s ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes). The central issue was the valuation of the seized oil fields: the corporate plaintiff assessed the value at many multiples of what the government claimed.

Smuggled Consumer Goods in Central Asia

A global consumer goods company’s affiliate in a major Central Asian market was losing market share and revenue to a competitor brand that was illegal in that country: it did not have local production or a license to operate; it was smuggled in without paying taxes.

Infrastructure Corruption in the Southern Cone

A client had put in what it expected to be a competitive bid for a major infrastructure project in a Southern Cone country and was surprised when the contract was awarded to someone else. We were called in to assess the country’s bidding process and the effectiveness of its anti-corruption protocols, so that the client could decide whether or not there was a basis for a legal action.

Risk to Manufacturing in Mexico

Threat Finance in the Southern Cone

The NGO Counter-Extremism Project gave Asymmetrica a grant to assess the claims that Lebanese Hezbollah and other terrorist groups could be receiving significant funding from organized crime smuggling and money laundering in the Tri-Border Area, where Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil touch.